The Federal Government has announced plans to begin paying the outstanding wage award owed to eligible federal civil servants before the middle of August.
The wage award is ₦35,000 per month for eligible workers.
This means a worker owed two months would receive ₦70,000, while three months of outstanding payments would amount to ₦105,000.
However, the Federal Government did not specify the exact number of months of wage award arrears that each eligible worker will receive in the coming payment.
The assurance was given by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, during a meeting with the Trade Side of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, JPSNC.
The meeting focused on the outstanding wage award, promotion arrears, salary concerns affecting health workers and other issues raised by organised labour.
The government said the necessary approvals for the payment of the outstanding wage award were being concluded, with the payment expected to reach eligible workers before the middle of August.
The minister also said the government was processing outstanding promotion arrears owed to civil servants.
Relevant officials were directed to review documents submitted by the workers’ negotiating council and work with the affected ministries, departments and agencies to speed up the payment process.
Organized labour had earlier asked the government to resolve the pending wage award and promotion arrears.
The workers’ representatives also raised issues concerning salary relativity for health workers and other welfare matters.
The Ministry of Finance said it was working with the relevant government institutions to ensure approved workers’ entitlements were processed and released without further delays.
The government also provided an update on promotion arrears, saying Batch 7 payments that were left out of an earlier exercise were being processed alongside Batch 9.
Officials said the government was also working on issues involving the Peculiar Allowance and other outstanding labour matters.
The Director of Cash Management at the Ministry of Finance, Christiana Osho, said reconciliation of the outstanding wage award had been completed and that the payment release was at the final stage.
According to the ministry, eligible federal workers will begin receiving the wage award once the funds are released, while the processing of promotion arrears will continue based on the approved schedule.
